Asakusa Shop Update

 

The Mokuhankan Asakusa shop is open on a normal six-day-a-week schedule: 10:00 ~ 5:30 daily (always closed Tuesdays) and are ready for your visit anytime! (Please note that we no longer hold the Print Parties, so can not take reservations for those ...)

 

US Tariffs

 

As we have all seen in recent news reports, the US government has announced that commercial goods arriving in the US from Japan will now be subject to a tariff charge at the time of import. We have no idea how this will work in practice: will your package be stopped by US Customs at the Post Office, or will it come through to your door? Will you actually be charged such a thing on these small personal packages? At present, all we can do is wait and see ... We will update this page as/when/if we learn more.

At present, the Postal Systems between Japan and the US are still not 'connected', and we have only two ways to move packages between the two countries:

• Air Mail 'letters'. Because our subscription prints are quite small, we are able to discreetly send them this way. The downside is that there is no tracking, nor any kind of insurance.
• Private carriers such as DHL and FedEx. These people are very good at their job, and things arrive quickly, and of course with full tracking and insurance. But of course, they are very expensive; not a big problem for a package of higher-priced prints, but pretty much a deal-killer for small monthly subscriptions.

 

Shipping Update

 

It has also become very common for packages to be returned to us after being held at the destination delivery office for a short period. If your shipment included tracking, our system will send you the number, and you must follow that information, and when you see that the package is in your area, please contact the delivery company to keep in touch. Thank you for your cooperation ...

 

Here is the current situation for most areas where our customers reside:

Middle East: As you might expect, many services in the region are disrupted. At present, most carriers (Post Office, DHL, FedEX) are still accepting shipments, but it is possible that there may be delays (or returns).

Europe: After a period of extreme interruption, delivery to most European countries has fully recovered. Most shipments are moving between Japan and the destination, with the exception of the immediate war zone (Ukraine/Russia). Flights through the Middle East are of course heavily impacted, cascading delays into many other areas ...

Oceania: The Post Office is accepting packages, and all of the private carriers have also resumed deliveries. (Please also note that the Australian postal system is not 'playing nice' with tracking information on trackable Small Packet shipments: we get tracking information up to the point where it is handed off to them, and nothing beyond that.)

Most Asian countries are accepting, and packages are flowing smoothly ...

Russia: As you might expect, all orders/subscriptions/shipments to Russia are suspended until further notice.

 

European import duties: Many countries have become much more strict in recent years about import duties on packages. Woodblock prints are actually not subject to 'duty' in most areas, but local taxes (V.A.T. etc.) are applicable in many cases. Your package may be stopped by the Customs agents in your country. We are currently working on an upgrade to our systems where we will be able to charge such taxes in our shopping cart, making subsequent shipping smooth and trouble-free, but this is still in the future.

 

The current status information page (in English) maintained by the Japanese Post Office is here (.pdf).